Waiting For Reparations

“If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.”

-Malcolm X

What is brother Malcolm referencing here? Something bold, accurate, and necessary, it’s a case for reparations. Not quite the vast one laid out by Ta Nehisi Coates, in The Case for Reparations, but profound in how concise the idea is; The tools used to inflict the intergenerational wounds upon black Americans must be removed so healing can take place. Simply, it’s the best moral, logical and ethical case I can make for reparations; that those who are powerful and or the oppressors must carry out the healing process to truly reconcile with past misdeeds. This is speaking in a very general sense of the idea but there are some concrete examples I’ll explore to better understand how vital reparations are to a more just, free, and complete society.

When considering the modern debate concerning reparations for African descendants of slaves (ADOS), the US can be used as a major example of expanding the understanding of reparations. I’ll use ADOS largely interchangeably with black Americans because while all black people in the US aren’t descended from slaves, we all live with the legacy of ADOS. To properly assess this modern struggle one first has to look at the history-which is fairly straightforward: African people were kidnapped, many of them brought to the United States, and treated as chattel slaves for decades. The U.S. system of chattel slavery had two major defining qualities in that it was both extremely brutal and hugely profitable.  Now comes a point of dissonance and major distinction in the reparations debate; atoning for the utter brutality associated with the institution of slavery is something of an impossibility.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers is just one resource of many that bring some small insight into the inhumane brutality that the U.S. wrought on the African slaves. One could hardly read through these types of narratives and conceive of “fair” compensation for such damages. This insurmountable debt can NOT allow us to ignore that there is both a monetary and moral debt to be paid here requiring more than simple platitudes. Rather we require a true national reconciliation with how this nation has treated ADOS/black Americans for 400 years. Slavery and the subsequent periods of black oppression are not just as history but live on today through”The New Jim Crow”, for more insight on the moral injustice suffered by black people. Michelle Alexander explains well how these systems can’t be ignored as something separate from slavery;

“In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color “criminals” and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” (Alexander, The New Jim Crow)

This quote is in essence, an explanation of my interchanging of ADOS with black Americans. The system of enslavement and oppression for African slaves has been transformed and expanded today to all black Americans. In the framing of any reparations program, this New Jim Crow must be torn down and have real justice applied to it. Pointing the force of the state away from black folks and towards violent white supremacist is how we must reconcile two of the most tangible and persistent remnants of our slave society. Black people should have basic freedom and protection from violence applied before all other actions to heal the scars of slavery.

To continue on with more tangible aspects we can look to capital and wealth associated with chattel slavery. William “Sandy” Darity(Arts and Sciences Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School at Duke University) offers some of the most insightful research on this aspect, when he links the modern racial wealth gap(wherein a black household has pennies on the dollar compared to a white household) directly to the profitable system of chattel slavery.

“I think [the racial distribution of wealth and reparations] are very much connected. I think that the growing interest on my part in reparations is actually what propelled me to pay closer and closer attention to racial wealth inequality. I certainly think that one of the objectives of a sound reparations program should be closing the racial wealth gap. In fact, I think that’s an important objective. It’s apparent to me that there are other ways to go about doing that but I think it’s essential to design a reparations program that would pay very close attention to racial wealth differences, the magnitude of racial wealth differences, the impact of racial wealth differences, and how we go about actually closing those gaps.” (Darity, 2017)

Sandy Darity lays out a tangible case for modern reparations based on a traceable statistic, in this, he ties the crimes of slavery and subsequent oppression of African-American people to modern inequalities. Serious disparities today have been caused by past stolen wages of slavery, followed by denial of basic human rights and the inability to participate fairly in wealth accumulation. There are a number of modern explanations and policy prescriptions to narrow this gap, radical reform of our tax code including but not limited to a wealth tax and a heightened estate tax would be effective ways to redistribute wealth. Pairing these types of policies with bills like HR40, (legislation to establish a commission to study reparations proposals) would be an important first step in the process of delivering reparations. With revenue raised from redistributive tax policy and a commission to focus on reparations for African Americans, it’s important to lay out some useful programs to achieve our stated goal. Something like a baby bonds program along the lines of Senator Corey Booker’s, a program that would create a fund for all American children that increases in value based on family income. An issue we run into here is that even with funds, policy managers, and programs identified, I’ve simply described a progressive policy agenda with reparations attached in name only.

The most difficult and most important aspect of a reparations process is to be certain that these programs are targeted towards the oppressed group, this remains the major source of confusion on how to form a comprehensive plan for reparations. We require something of a scientific process here, to determine who should receive reparations and how best to deliver them to this particular group. For some guidance, I suggest we look at Rep. Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 formula where at least 10% of federal funds would be directed towards communities where 20% or more of the population has lived below the poverty line for 30 years. Here we see a relatively simple and straightforward formula to cause funds from a total program to be directed more specifically based on need. Applying this sort of method in the pursuit of delivering reparations might be a partial solution. It’d be a paramount task of the Commission to Study Reparations to develop a similar formula to fairly and effectively deliver funds to ADOS and black Americans, but we must look at reparations as a long term/dynamic policy instead of a magic bullet. It’s a complicated process but that shouldn’t continue to stop us in and of itself, we should proceed intentionally in how to best deliver material payments to ADOS as reparations.

The moral repayment explored earlier must not be forgotten. In delivering reparations to improve the material conditions of black Americans within our current system, we satisfy a part of a larger debt. Ultimately though, the deep alienation of the African slaves from their own labor was a major theft and the effects persist today. The African slaves built what is now the wealthiest country in the history of the world and the wealth of the nation lies in the hands of a few, mostly white, oligarchs. ADOS haven’t just been deprived of inheriting monetary wealth from our ancestors but also political and social power. The fact that black people lack these today is a moral outrage when considering how this country was built. Solutions for socio-political disenfranchisement of black people can seem abstract but again there are some decent steps to take towards righting our wrongs.

True universal enfranchisement is a reasonable place to start, one of the most common tools of limiting black political power throughout all of U.S. history has been voter suppression. Efforts to suppress the vote have often been aimed at black people and disproportionately affect black people, so a dedicated effort to expand democracy to all citizens could alleviate most of this political suppression. Legislation to increase access to polling locations based on a similar type of formula to Clyburn’s 10-20-30 model would help bring unconditional suffrage closer to being a piece of a reparations program. For example, any state that’s passed or operated with voter ID laws within the past 10 years must spend a certain percentage of the state budget on increasing accessibility of polling places until they reach 65% voter turnout statewide. A hasty example of my own creation but useful, I think, in the emphasis on states being compelled to invest in undoing voter suppression policies that have targeted black people.

Looking more deeply at the exclusion and suppression of black people within US political life we must look beyond the ballot box. Look at this both through the eyes of policy and social reconciliation aimed at the violence against radical black politics and the violence of white supremacist politics. Nothing less than transparent admissions from our federal and state governments of their roles in undermining and destroying radical black political figures and organizations. It then falls on our journalist and media to cover this information honestly so the general population can receive it in good faith to the benefit of black people. Black political thought has too often been moderated or polarized and we have to confront this fact directly if black people are to have our full right to political expression and influence. Just as our government has been successful in destroying radical black political movements it has been equally insufficient in combating violent white supremacist groups and movements. Action must be taken against white supremacist groups to snuff them out as we would any terrorist organization: as long as these types of groups remain unimpeded they’ll continue to intimidate black people and other marginalized groups away from full political and social lives. Just as with the other side of this coin, our media and general population must be honest in viewing this situation by being forceful in identifying and opposing violent white supremacy. Cornel West offers this on how black people are terrorized and thus excluded from American socio-political life;

“White supremacist ideology is based first and foremost on the degradation of black bodies in order to control them. One of the best ways to instill fear in people is to terrorize them. Yet this fear is best sustained by convincing them that their bodies are ugly, their intellect is inherently underdeveloped, their culture is less civilized, and their future warrants less concern than that of other peoples.” (West, Race Matters)

A shifting of the political spectrum cannot be without purpose and I think the most immediate purposes we can seek are again in the electoral arena and through systematic changes. Any politician or political party with a reparations platform should commit to an affirmative action style policy for their office and in the staffing of party positions. This is an incomplete solution as affirmative action policies aren’t without flaws but a commitment to having black people from a wider political spectrum in the halls of power is one of the necessary steps in increasing black political power.

Our political power as black people is never to be wasted, and as we advocate for repayment for unspeakable crimes inflicted upon our community, we should look outward in this process too. Renown political scholar Noam Chomsky had this to say on supporting reparations;

“Would I? Very much so. Not just African Americans. We ourselves didn’t own slaves, but we — me — are rich and privileged because of the torture of blacks for centuries. And yes we owe them reparations,”

He continues on to say,

“The same with the remnants of Native Americans. Same with countries that we’ve destroyed. What about Iraq? I mean we’ve devastated Iraq, killed hundreds of thousands of people, generated millions of refugees, created sectarian conflict that’s destroying the place. Is it our responsibility? Sure,” (Chomsky, 2015)

This is an important case to be made, just as reparations are owed to ADOS the US owes a number of debts around the world for its unspeakable crimes. Often times things that benefit black people also lifts up the rest of society and reparations will not be any different. It’s best that we welcome in a coalition of similarly oppressed individuals to what has and will be a long struggle.

While we wait for reparations though, it’s imperative that we achieve tangible benefits for black people, like narrowing the racial wealth gap and enfranchising black people without prejudice. Creating a society where black people receive, in full and with special consideration, the benefits of universal programs is a step I feel must precede a more specific reparations program. Through deeper involvement of radical black political thought in policy making and wielding power, we can see a real plan for reparations materialize in what should be a freer society. On reparations for ADOS and black people throughout the US, it’s not really about waiting, it’s about taking the proper steps.

I discussed these steps in a different order up above but this is how I best envision this multistep process:

1. Establish a commission to study and implement a process for reparations policy, this must come first so that all following steps can be investigated for inclusion in a reparations program.
2. Admit that slavery is one of our great national sins, that the state has been involved in upholding white supremacy and acted in direct opposition to radical black political thought for our entire history. Any commission for reparations should ensure that this is a transparent process but not the final step.
3. Commit to a criminal justice policy that pardons black people from arbitrary incarceration and ends the system that targets black people as criminals who can be legally enslaved. Furthermore, we must divert policing resources towards forcefully combating violent white supremacist and other anti-black hate groups. Any commission for reparations must ensure this step is recognized as a direct confrontation against ‘The New Jim Crow” and white supremacy while also advocating further for prison abolition.
4. Extend voting rights to all citizens 16-18 years and older without condition. Any commission for reparations should seek to center the enfranchisement of black people by pursuing policies to undo policies that have suppressed black votes and wider electoral reform.
5. Reform the tax code to effectively redistribute wealth and raise the revenue needed for welfare, well-being, and “New Deal” policies. Any commission for reparations should see that this is used as a funding apparatus and that New Deal policies aren’t racially blind.
6. Enact universal programs to the benefit poor and working people to eliminate disparities in material conditions such as income, wealth, healthcare, education, etc. Any commission for reparations should scrutinize and refine these programs to address disparities for black people, specifically, found within wider disparities to better meet material needs.
7. Enact more targeted programs alongside “New Deal” programs to more directly address material disadvantages felt by black people and meet all basic human needs. Any commission on reparations should apply a scientific process similar to but not limited to a 10-20-30 formula at this step especially to identify appropriate targets.
8. Compel politicians and political parties who support reparations in name or previous steps to this process to take up policies to introduce more black people into the political system. Any commission for reparations should itself be composed of black people, especially from poor and working backgrounds who espouse more radical politics to lead by example on this step. 
9. Any commission for reparations, upon securing them for black people, should look to build coalitions by investigating other cases where the US should pay and carry out a reparations process. A true focus on black Americans in this process, once satisfied, must extend itself to similarly marginalized groups.
10. With vast material needs met, political rights as full citizens recognized, and moral debts at least partially paid, any commission for reparations must make recommendations on what type of society could best deliver a completed reparations plan. Capitalism, social democracy, socialism, communism, etc the commission must be prepared to recommend and advocate for systematic changes necessary to best-delivering reparations.

For black people to be instrumental in the political future of this country and the world must be the ultimate result of a reparations program; we’ll take hold of the fruits of our ancestor’s labor and use them to feed a more just, free, and complete society.